Yep. Basically Erik the Red (most famous Viking in history traveled with many other Vikings west from Scandinavia in search of land rumored to be entirely apart from the European continent) and his fellow Viks discovered Greenland as well as Iceland.

The story goes... Erik the Red and many other Vikings discovered and settled on Iceland. They were free to openly practice any religion they chose. Free to rule the land without paying taxes, etc. A land of true paradise during those times.

Unfortunately, there was some minute incident where one Viking tribe disrespected Erik and his fellow Vikmen or something to that effect, Erik and his men responded with harmful force (can't recall if anyone lost their lives etc) - and the result was Erik and his men were expelled from the newly found land, Iceland.

So Erik and his men thought there'd eventually be more land if they continued traveling westward. Keep in mind, many still believed the world was flat, so naturally some feared they'd fall straight off the face of the earth. Others believed they'd make history by discovering a new, much quicker trade route with China and India. At any rate, they loved sailing the seas, had the ships that were capable enough to cross entire oceans so they went for it.

A few weeks/months later, they discovered what was to later be called Greenland. Problem was, it wasn't exactly Green. Erik, frustrated with being kicked off the land he loved, Iceland and knowing he would need to attract more people to properly settle the land, he named it Greenland as an attempt to make such happen.

New travelers heard news of this. So they compared the two new lands, weighed their options, and to some, even though there was little known about Greenland, it sounded much more enticing, so some made the longer trip to Greenland, but once they arrived, most were disappointed, because they quickly found out very little of the land was actually serviceable, in terms of settling the land, growing crops, land suitable for livestock, etc.

So because of that, Greenland quickly became no-man's land. The name just stuck. And there you have it. The reason why Iceland is called Iceland and Greenland is called Greenland, even though they'd be much more accurate if they were flip-flopped. Politics.

It's all good man. Don't worry about. That one single positive rep would be negated a million fold from the endless ISH parasites who hate me just to hate me - regardless of the post I'm supposedly being negged for.

how did they come up with the name Iceland in the first place? why would they name a piece of land after ice if it was in fact
green?

The commonly accepted theory around it is, Erik the Red created the buzz that Iceland was named Iceland and Greenland was named Greenland before word got back to the European continent. For reasons I've already explained.

People say money and all these advancements in society have made the world better, but all of the developed countries have more depressed people than the poor ones. Reasons being

-There is more pressure on people to be "successful" in westernized countries.
-All the technology is making people anti-social and isolated. Humans are social animals, and depriving them of that interaction will eventually make them feel miserable.
-The traditional family is dying out. Feminism, liberalism, divorce rates higher than 50%, etc.

In poor countries these people enjoy the simple things out of life. They have communities where the people care about each other and work together to build a way of life.

Hit it on the head bro. I don't think liberalism has anything to do with it though. I would be willing to bet most of the suicides come from suburban areas with traditional conservative families.

Several reasons are blamed for Greenland's high rate of suicide, including alcoholism, depression, poverty, conflict-ridden relationship with partner, dysfunctional parental homes, etc. According to a report published in the Science Daily in 2009, the suicide rate in Greenland increases during the summer. Researchers have blamed insomnia caused by incessant daylight.

Culture clash between the traditional culture and modern Western culture is also assumed to be a contributing factor.

Three times the rate of the next highest nation is way way statistically significant.

Some of the baselevel observational data I'm sure applies. The cold. The space per capita I'm sure puts a fair physical distance between people.

Access to firearms means that the option is simply more attainable.

But I'll throw out an interesting study. In Malcolm Gladwell's The Tipping Point, he talks about behavior being contagious essentially. That things can take on a snowball effect. And suicide is one of those things. I can actually give you a first hand account on a real micro level. About 7 or 8 years ago I had a cousin commit suicide. She was a typical young American teen who got upset over a boy liking her friend kind of thing (although she had a multitude of other family issues going back years, mainly based around her father being a legit sociopath, beating her mother, probably them, burning down their house with them in it, and eventually winding up in prison). She wound up hanging herself. But interestingly, the school had three other attempts after that in the same year. And over the course of the next 6 years, they had I believe 15 attempts. It was like she opened a door. I'm sure some of it was just attention seeking, but these kids got the notion of that attention from her.

And as I found this interesting then, it wasn't long after I read Gladwell's book (I actually became pretty obsessed with him and read all his stuff, which is pretty easy reading for being somewhat number oriented), and he had a chapter in The Tipping Point about suicide rates skyrocketing in Micronesia during the 70s and 80s. Something like 10 times the next highest rate. It was later discovered that the rate spiked after a romantic Romeo and Juliet type scenario where a young couple who couldn't be together wound up killing themselves, or some such thing, and from there on, teens had adopted this story and were doing this with way more frequence than one would expect.

I do find the fact that poorer countries have much lower rates. The notion than they have a better appreciation of the simple things in life is a viable explanation. But I also wonder if it's at least in part that they learn from an earlier age how to deal with the stresses of real life, and are therefor more likely to be able to handle things later on. It may have less to do with them enjoying the simple things than it does with their more regular exposure to the bad things.

I do find the fact that poorer countries have much lower rates. The notion than they have a better appreciation of the simple things in life is a viable explanation. But I also wonder if it's at least in part that they learn from an earlier age how to deal with the stresses of real life, and are therefor more likely to be able to handle things later on. It may have less to do with them enjoying the simple things than it does with their more regular exposure to the bad things.

I think its because those 'bad things' they experience are just more challenges they have to face.. and their challenges, like being able to find food for the day, or laboring all day for small amounts of money to scrape by, dont leave them with much time to sit around bored and contemplate.

They have struggle everyday to survive so they appreciate everything more. When everythings laid out for you already and your completely bored with no purpose(since survival is not a big problem for us) thats when your mind starts to go negative.

I do find the fact that poorer countries have much lower rates. The notion than they have a better appreciation of the simple things in life is a viable explanation. But I also wonder if it's at least in part that they learn from an earlier age how to deal with the stresses of real life, and are therefor more likely to be able to handle things later on. It may have less to do with them enjoying the simple things than it does with their more regular exposure to the bad things.